


The Guardian

by Steal



Category: Original Work
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-19
Updated: 2021-02-19
Packaged: 2021-03-15 04:13:45
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,879
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29553354
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Steal/pseuds/Steal
Summary: A traveler comes across a mysterious sphere, and decides to investigate





	The Guardian

The Guardian

I look up at my ship, the ship that would always be there waiting for me to show up. Waiting for the next time I call on it. The next time I need to flee the enemies that I have made. I smile and walking in. I run my hand along the side of my ship, the only home I have ever known. 

"Ready to go, girl?" I ask, slipping into my seat and firing up the engines. 

"Let's see where we will look for trouble next," I say as I spin the map three times, then tap my finger down just as the third rotation had gone past. 

"Catatonia, I've never been there before. What do you say we make some enemies there now?" 

With that, I launched, flying at a breakneck speed, dancing my ship right on the edge of destruction just because I know she can take it.   
As I am flying through an asteroid field, just barely avoiding scraping the paint off the top of my ship, I spot a slight glint.

"I should just keep going, right?" I say as I turn toward the glint, already knowing that there was no way in hell that I would be leaving it be. Even though it will undoubtedly be something that any sane person would regret walking into with my luck, I did slow my pace, though, experience telling me that if I did not, I might end up needing to repair my ship again, and that would be unacceptable. 

"What the hell? I say even though seeing a perfectly smooth sphere floating in the middle of an asteroid field was nowhere near the strangest thing I had seen in my long, long life. I tried sending out a message on every frequency I had ever heard of literally. Asking if it was okay or not a living entity if there were any people inside who needed help. While waiting for a reply, I flew around the sphere, looking for a way in. Before I even got halfway around, there was an answer on one of the more obscure frequencies that had not been used in millions of years. I had just been considering removing the receptors. 

"That just figures," I say, just shaking my head. 

"The one I was planning on removing last week is the one that I need," I say, smiling and opening the channel to respond.

"This is Steel of the Guardian, is all well?" I say, praying that the answer would be different than it always was.

"No, there is–" The words cut out for a second. 

"No oxygen– massive damage– lost most of my crew to– assistance requ– Okay, I will see what I can do. Is there a place for me to dock? Opening now, wear a gas ma– hurry please." Came the immediate response, although the voice sounded a little different. I flew and docked my ship to theirs and stood, reaching up to touch my sword more out of habit than any need to make sure it was there. As it was always there, and I was always ready for a fight. Then I took a deep breath and turned, letting the age slip off my face as I walked into the ship so as not to let them know the danger I could pose, choosing not to wear a gas mask as there was not a lot of airborne things that could harm me.  
As soon as I stepped into the ship, I could see the damage, although how the inside of the ship was damaged while the outside was flawless, I did not know. 

"There is oxygen," I thought, taking a deep breath, annoyance filling me at their lie. 

"Hello," I called, not knowing where the people had taken refuge and not wanting to take them by surprise by appearing from around a bend. Walking past a ripped open section of the ship, I stopped, the damage finally registering. I spun to check behind me and looked up to be sure there was nothing there, 

"as had happened… I stopped that thought right there, slamming it into the box in the back of my mind. Now is not a good time for that", I thought, kneeling by the wall to get a closer look. My whole body was thrumming with wariness, waiting for an attack. I reached out and ran my hand down the scratch in the wall, the scratch that some animal could have only caused. Hoping my hand would not recognize those scratches, hoping that it was something that the crew had taken care of, but knowing that I would not be here if that were the case.

"Shit," I hissed, realizing that when I had called out, I had made myself a target for whatever did this. When will I learn, I thought, standing and shifting smoothly into a ready stance. Even though I could attack from any position, this was the fastest. I started moving quickly but quietly down the hall. Looking for signs of life, trying to find, quietly this time, where everyone who had survived had fallen back to. Probably the bridge, but where that would be was beyond me. From behind me came the sound of… something I did not recognize, but if the fact that I had drawn my sword without thought was any indication, my instincts were telling me that it was dangerous. I slid my foot across the ground, searching for debris as I slowly backed up. Heart and breath steadier than they had been in a while. I spun when I heard running the sound of feet behind me, sword raising easily into position to kill. 

"You have to come with me," a boy gasped, doubling over as he tried to catch his breath. 

"I am sorry, I did not know where– I mean, the damage was extensive here, you might fall through any second." He said, not looking me in the eye. 

"Right," I answered, not shifting my stance in the slightest. 

"You know, I have been trying to figure out what it was that caused damage inside your ship but left the outside completely intact. Mind telling me? Uh, an explosion," the boy said, eyes darting to a mark in the wall. 

"Yeah, that makes perfect sense," I answered, making sure to fill my voice with sarcasm. 

"That is why these marks," I said, reaching out to touch one, making sure not to cut my hand. 

"Are nearly straight lines because an explosion ripped pieces of your ship off," I waited for a second to see if he had anything to say, then continued.

"Right? Oh," he said, eyes lighting up as though he just realized something. "No, these marks are from shrapnel, not the explosion. Shrapnel?" I repeated, closing my eyes for a brief second. 

"Because shrapnel can definitely cut like this, always in sections of five," I thought, irritated by the insult of such a poorly thought out lie.

"Look," I said, hardening my voice.

"if you do not tell me the truth right now, I am going to walk out of here and leave you, people, to your fate. No," he said, almost jumping forward as though he was going to try and stop me.

"Please, just follow me. I can't explain it to you. I would be disobeying an order, but if you come with me, I will take you to someone who can. Please, we need help." I looked around, considering if I was going to tempt fate again and try to leave.

"Fine," I finally said, knowing that even if I did try to leave, I would not be able to because this was where I was supposed to be. He nodded quickly and turned around, and took off running. After a moment's hesitation, I ran off after him. We ran through the halls dodging this way and that to avoid the chunks of metal in our path. We ran for maybe ten minutes before my guide slid to a stop in front of a closed door. As soon as he caught his balance from that rapid stop, he reached up and knocked once on the door. Immediately there was the sound of something moving behind the door. After a few seconds of this, the door slid open a crack, and a head popped out.

"Ah, Vikan, is this the person who said they were going to help? Yes," Vikan responded, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

"All right, come on in then," the guy behind the door said as the door opened just far enough to admit us. We stepped through, and I looked around, cataloguing everything and everyone in the room. My eyes fell on the woman who was approaching.

"Is this Steel? she asked Vikan. 

"Yes, I mean that is the way that it appears. You did not ask her who she was?" The woman responded, staring hard at him. Vikan dipped his head, eyes dropping to the floor. 

"No, captain, I wanted to get back to safety as soon as possible." The captain stared at him for a while longer before turning her attention back to me. "You are Steel of the guardian?" She asked, watching me suspiciously.

"Yes," I answered, my tone clipped. 

"I am here to help; however, I will be unable to do so unless someone tells me what is going on," I say, watching her eyes for any sign of an attack. The captain nodded, considering my words. 

"All we need is a ship to get away, and you do not need to know what is going on to give us a ride. I require it; I will not put myself in danger without knowing the full story. 

"The captain turned away and started walking to a private room. The man who had opened the door nodded at the captain before walking over to finish rebandaging someone's injuries. 

"Follow me," she said, glancing back at me before walking in.

"You wish to know what is going on, do you?" She asked. The answer to the question was obvious, so I did not respond. She watches me for a few seconds waiting for a response; after receiving none, she continued. 

"We are mercenaries who were hired to transport a prisoner to a more secure facility." She looked away, guilt flashing across her face for a split second before continuing, 

"I underestimated the difficulty, and he broke out of our brig and attacked my crew killing most of them. Everyone but the people out there." Just as I opened my mouth to ask another question, there was a banging on the door. The captain walked over and opened the door to admit the person who had admitted Vikan and me. 

"Yes, Simon?" The captain asked, looking at him.

"He has found us; he left Siro's body just outside the door." The captain nodded walked swiftly out, calling to her crew. 

"Vikan, Garroston, we need to go, Steel. I will finish telling you all about our problems when we are out of here. Agreed," I answered, nodding. 

"Just answer one more question, what was he imprisoned for?" The captain hesitated before asking 

"Why does it matter? Will this affect your ship's ability to fly? No, but it may affect my ability to fly it." The captain sighed and grabbed her bag and gun, and looked out to make sure that everyone else had gathered their gear as well. Before turning back to me, 

"He and three others like him killed half a planet's population before one of them turned on him. which was the only way he was caught." I stared at her, shocked, not at what the former prisoner had done but that she would even consider leaving him alive and unguarded. 

"I can't leave him here and free, not if what you told me is true. Fine, then stay and die. I don't care; give me the codes for your ship, and I will leave you to do whatever it is you think necessary." She said, placing a hand on the gun at her hip.

"Really a threat? You promised to deliver your prisoner to a secure facility, yes? Are you going to break your word? Are you seriously suggesting we capture him and take him with us, really? Are you a complete fool? I am not the one suggesting that we let a mass murderer go free." I responded, shaking my head slightly at her foolishness. 

"Look, I already lost twenty-one good men and women to this guy. I will not lose the few I have left so you can play the hero. So, give me the codes for your ship, or I will kill you now and guess them." With that, she pulled her gun, and the others did the same, pointing it at my head. I turned slowly around, assessing their willingness to follow their captain. 

"I will trade the codes for the location of your engines and a fifteen-minute head start." The captain stared at me for a second before wordlessly reaching into her bag and pulled out a map and holding it out to me, said   
"I will give you this after I get the codes, and we will see about your head start. Okay," I answered, knowing this was the only way to ensure whomever it was never got off this ship. 

"The code is eleven five and seventy-nine" grabbing the map, I opened it looking for the engines. Having found them, I walked over to the door. Turning back, I said, 

"I will lead him away if I can." With that, I opened the door and took off running to the engines screaming as I ran. I ran and ran for what felt like an hour before I saw a shadow move ever so slightly in front of me and skidded to a halt, slowly drawing my sword and stalking forward, waiting to attack until I was sure of where he was. Finally, slowly he was revealed to me, first his glowing green feline eyes, then the small amount of light from the ship's flickering lights glinted off his three-inch-long claws. He was standing slightly hunched, hands barely touching the floor, ready to pounce black and brown fur covering every inch of him that I could see. All this had to be taken in in a second because he was lunging forward in the next second. Hearing a sound behind me, I spun and ran down a passage just to my left and heard him race after me. Before we had made it more than a few steps, there was the sound of gunfire, and he uttered a screaming growl. I spun in time to watch him run at the four people at the end of the hallway. I ran forward to the sound of repeated gunshots and his screaming and leaped on his back, drawing my sword as I went and stabbed right where his heart should be. He roared and slammed me against a wall knocking me off and leaving me dazed, so I could barely see what happened next. I just heard another four gunshots, and abruptly the screaming stopped. I sat up slowly, testing myself for injuries and looked over to see what had happened. I saw the captain standing over the body of her former prisoner before she approached him.

"You gave us the wrong codes," she snapped. "

Yes, but I gave your ship back," I answered, smiling. 

"I should kill you," she said before bending over and pulling me to my feet. 

"Does your ship have weapons?" She asked me after I was standing. 

"Of course. Good then you will escort us to the nearest port, or I will kill you right now." She said, holding her body stiff. 

Well, I guess I am going back to port Danteron." I answered after a beat of silence. She nodded and called to Garroston and Vikan to see what they could do about getting the ship moving. Then told Simon to take me back to my ship. We walked along the hallways in silence. I could feel the anger rolling off Simon in waves but chose to ignore it. right before I entered my ship, I turned to Simon and said 

"it was a pleasure to meet you," smiling at him, knowing what his response would be. 

"You better pray I never see you again," he said, and with that, he walked away. Still smiling, I fired up my engines and prayed instead for an uneventful flight for once. Before taking off, I pulled a book off the shelf in front of me and added the crew's names and descriptions and the prisoner to it in the enemies' section. Then I detached from the sphere, flew a few miles from them to take up my agreed-upon repayment, and flew with them the few hours to Danteron. After watching them dock, I turned my ship around, ready to leave.

"Let us see if we can get to Catatonia without incident this time if that is even possible." With that, I flew away, leaving Danteron probably for at least another hundred years.

The End


End file.
